


Parisian Nights

by orphan_account



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Because I don't even know myself, Don't ask me what I'm doing, F/M, I mean I had a plan, Nicely diagrammed and everything, but who knows
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 11:39:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6609328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It’s hard to control your heart when you don’t know where it lies.”<br/>The words echoed. The voice that spoke them was hollow. But there was an odd sweetness in the statement, a strange fondness to the meaning.<br/>Like he preferred it that way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parisian Nights

Marinette had never really liked autumn. It was when flowers and trees wilted. It was when school began again. It was when there was a subdued apathy in the air, like the world was only waiting for the transition into winter. It was when there was an unsettling creepiness in the mood. The nights grew longer and the days grew brief, the wind grew harsher and the sky grew gloomier. And past a certain point the world just keeled over and died.

But not this autumn. This autumn flipped around and turned into the loudest and brightest and most confusing season Marinette could remember.

Perhaps the reason was that she was older. She was deeper in the world, she knew more and could see more and could feel more. She was awake and alive.

Or maybe it was because she knew who Chat Noir was under his mask.

It was probably the latter.

Marinette had always made a point of protecting each other by keeping their true selves hidden. Chat Noir was reluctant in the beginning, but he saw the danger in knowing, and so they stayed in blissful ignorance for a long time.

Oh, but it was all over now.

Marinette ran her hands over her face and through her hair as she paced her room. She was trembling all over and fidgeting all over. Her thoughts boiled and tumbled and grew and receded, like the ocean in a storm. Tikki hovered and paced at her side, just as confused and troubled as she was.

“How is this possible?” They would say every now and then. “How did we not see it?”

The girl walked back and forth, wearing her path into the floor. It was only when her mother climbed the stairs to tell her to ‘go to sleep already’ that she stopped and sat down and waited.

It was midnight when her parents turned out their lights and fell asleep. Her house was dark and soundless. Her room was lit only by the warm reddish glow of a single lamp. She was perched on a chair under the rose-colored light.

Tikki shook her little head in disbelief.

“I never would have guessed.” She said sadly, almost as though she was disappointed that they had found out so soon, and she was left without the chance to identify him herself.

“It’s too hard to believe.” Marinette replied, biting her lower lip. They gazed out of the window, at the inky black skyline of their city. Stars appeared and disappeared from sight as gray clouds drifted across the sky. They could hear the sounds of distant music and the footsteps of late night wanders.

The girl stood up. “It’s impossible, right?”

“Well,” Tikki started. Her blue eyes twinkled, and she seemed to be thinking, remembering odd instances and finally connecting the dots. His excuses and strange mannerisms that were originally dismissed came back to their minds. There were solid reasons, but the two would not believe until they had seen it with their own eyes.

“We have to make sure.” Marinette took a deep breath.

They had spent the morning dubious and suspicious, and the afternoon worried and confused. It was now the evening and they were reasonable and sensible.

“We’ll go see him.” Tikki said, calmly and collectedly.

“But will we go as us or as Ladybug?” Neither spoke, and for a moment they listened to the echoing laughter of strangers from the street.

As an answer, they simply nodded to each other.

And Ladybug turned out the lamp and slipped out of the window.

The September air was crisp and cold, but Ladybug wasn’t bothered. The wind swept her bangs out of her face and ripped her cheeks raw. She jumped from roof to chimney to window to balcony. She slid down tiled ceilings and vaulted concrete dividers; she perched on metal pipes and balanced on thin fences.

And she laughed.

To be her was to be free, and to be free was a wonderful thing.

It didn’t take long to get to his house. The girl crouched on the windowsill of the building across from his room and waited. She rested on the balls of her feet and propped her head upon her hands.

It only dawned on her at this moment that it was, in fact, midnight and he would surely, like any other student in their right mind, be asleep.

But he wasn’t.

There were several lights on in his room, and his computers were all open as well. His TV was flipping from scene to scene, and a radio was playing music. And then he descended the spiraled stairs, dressed in pajamas and accompanied by a small black figure at his shoulder.

Ladybug took a deep breath. 

From this distance, he looked like both of them. He looked like the handsome and kind boy who sat in front of her in the day. The one with a smile, the one without a hair out of place. But he also looked like the funny and wild boy who stood beside her in the night. The one with the grin, the one with the glint in his eyes.

He walked to the couch and glanced at the screen in front of him. And then he glanced outside.

Ladybug thought she imagined it. She was absolutely sure that the cool and comforting darkness of the evening hid her from sight. There was no moon, and the stars were mostly obscured by wispy gray and purple clouds. It was impossible. He couldn’t have seen her.

But when he walked closer and unlatched a window, Ladybug was sure she was actually asleep in her bed, dreaming all of this. His blonde hair was gold in the light of his room, his bright eyes wide and curious. His expression seemed to say, ‘What are you doing here?’

He waved her closer.

Ladybug thought there was no hope to scamper away at that point, so she stood up. She had her yoyo in her hand, but she was oddly reluctant to move closer.

He gestured for her to come in. She took a shaky breath and threw her yoyo. The familiar tug at her hand made her instinctively jump and she swung smoothly across the street.

She found herself balanced on the ledge of the window, a darkened street at her back and a bedroom flooded with warm light at her front. The sounds of his music and his TV and his computers were familiar to her. The place smelled like wood and soap. And she felt like she was home.

The little black figure had disappeared. But she knew it was somewhere, and she knew what it was.

Adrien stared confusedly up at her.

“What are you doing out? Don’t you usually patrol earlier than this?” Ladybug was silent for a moment and the boy below her colored. “I mean-not that I really know, it just-it seemed like you would-” His words stumbled to a halt.

The girl shook her head. “No, you’re right. I just thought I’d take a different way today.”

Adrien took a few steps back. “Right, of course.” He paused. “Do you, um, you can come in, if you like.”

Ladybug looked around at his room, and then looked at the yoyo in her hands. “No, I-I should really go back.” She turned away from him.

“Wait!” He cried. The girl swung around in surprise. His cheeks turned red again. “I mean. Um.” He opened and closed his mouth, searching for the right thing to say.

“Do you want me to stay?” She asked him, and they were both astonished at her candor. He was quiet as he studied the floor.

Ladybug was uneasy. She had her proof. The little black shadow at his shoulder was gone; it might’ve been that it was never there at all, but if she focused she could feel it. There was a kwami in his room, and there was a miraculous on his hand. She felt rather sheepish for not realizing it before. And she felt rather nervous for standing there, in Adrien’s room, next to Adrien, who was actually Chat Noir.

Ladybug sat down on the windowsill.

Adrien looked sharply up.

The girl was hesitant. The boy was hesitant. They were shy and awkward and nervous. But she stayed. And slowly, they began to talk.

They started out with wavering voices, and long pauses in between statements. There were several times when they would try to speak at the same time, and then they would clamp their mouths shut and wait for the other to begin again. Adrien’s shoulders were tensed and Ladybug’s eyes flickered to the side. Her voice cracked and his sentences tumbled off into silence.

But then they began to laugh. The clumsiness of their conversation eased and he joked and she giggled. They mixed perfectly together, their voices sounded so beautiful next to each other, blending with the noise of his room and echoing out in the dark street below.

§

“No way.” Ladybug protested as the night creeped on. “Lemon. Lemon is way better.”

“You must be crazy.” He said. “Chocolate is the best.” The girl above him shook her head.

“If you asked my dad-” Her voice halted. Her eyes fixated on a clock on his wall, watching the hands tick and tock around the face. “Is that on time?” She asked him.

Distractedly, he turned around. “Um, I think so, why?”

Ladybug shot to her feet, very nearly slipping off the ledge in her haste. “I have to go.” She fumbled with her yoyo and turned to face the cloudy night.

Adrien bolted upright. “Wait!” Again, Ladybug swung around in surprise at his plead. But this time, he didn’t draw back. “Please stay. For a little longer?” The girl’s eyes flickered between the boy and the taunting face of the clock. Had she really been there for almost four hours?

“My parents wake up soon.” She told him, her voice thick. “They’ll notice if I’m gone. And there’s school tomorrow.” She sent her yoyo out into the gloom. She felt it latch onto something in the distance.

The silence stung. 

And then the boy moved a little closer. “Will you come back? I’ll leave the window open for you.” 

Before she could think she had already told him, “Of course.” And then warmth of his room faded away as her feet left the ground.

§

The sky was lightening into a foggy blue and Marinette and Tikki were once again pacing. The kwami was muttering and the girl would stop, look at something, smile, frown and step around the room again. Exhaustion didn’t bother them, sleep didn’t matter. They were wide awake.

“It’s definitely true then.” Tikki said.

Marinette, who was now examining a poster for a masquerade her mother left for her, nodded. “Do you think it was okay to tell him I’ll come back?”

“Well,” The little red creature thought for a moment. “Why did you say yes?”

“Because I want to know him. I want to be closer to him.” The girl tapped her fingers against her desk. “Because I love him.”

“You love them both?” She inquired. Marinette smiled.

“They’re the same person. I can’t love one and not the other.” The girl bit her lip. “But I need to reveal myself. Right?”

“Well, yes. Obviously. But you can’t just walk up to him and announce it.” The girl nodded.

“I think I should get to know him more first. I’ll visit him again.” As Ladybug, she thought. As the person he knows better. As the person he’s more open to. She smiled. It was rather like a fairytale. Her love and her partner were the same person. She was lucky, she decided.

Marinette looked back down at the poster, with the golden mask and the date on it. She tugged out a roll of ivory chiffon and brought out her model. More than two weeks was plenty of time. Maybe even enough time to invite him, too.

The girl pulled out a needle and thread and began to sew, with straight, even stitches and a steady hand.


End file.
